The most important question to ask yourself before beginning a research project with students is "why." What are some of the reasons that we ask students to research?
Torture Annoy them
Understand different points of view
Deeper inquiry - go beyond text/movie, etc. learning
Understanding the research process/practice researching
Looking for and understanding bias
Take ownership of their own learning
Required in the curriculum
Skill development
We don't want to do it ourselves (Dan Butler)
Expands the scope of what we can cover
Alternative to lecture
IMC visits (yay!)
Put through process to see what subject-specific research process means
Empathy
If you asked your students why they are required to do a research paper or project, what would they say?
Evil
Busy work
Waste of time
Teachers are lazy
Preparation for college/future
It's good for you
Required
How do our students define success in research?
Finding what they already believe
Good grade
As they go through, have a sense of accomplishment
Not getting caught plagiarizing
Just finishing it
Learning
Becoming an expert
We would like...
Enjoyment of research
Gaining new insights
Being a critical consumer of info
What do students learn during a research project?
Another important question to ask yourself as you begin to create a new project is "what kinds of learning experiences do I want my students to have?" In other words, what do students learn when they undertake various research tasks?
Identify relevant, credible sources
Using multiple sources to verify information
Intrinsic understanding - digging deeper
Filtering through information
How to deal with frustrations not finding information and finding different viewpoints
Reading through, comprehending, and understanding sources
Critical reading and annotation skills
Critical consumer of information
Asking questions of themselves and others
Moving past "good enough"
Research/Learning takes time
You should actually learn from research
At the beginning, should be gaining background, browsing sources, and gathering varying perspectives before moving forward
Independent thinkers
Follow where the research leads you
Research is not just a school/academic process
Not linear
Getting excited about research
Practice writing skills
Student expectations
Many studies have shown that students' expectations early in the research process have a lot to do with how they progress. Louise Limberg has shown that students did one of three things while researching:
Fact finding where relevance was determined more by ease of access
Balancing information to find the right answer where (1) relevance was determined by what would allow students to answer each subtopic correctly and (2) bias in information was handled with difficulty and usually the immediate choice of one side
Scrutinizing and analysing where students did not restrict relevance to sources that answered a subtopic but instead tried to place information in a wider context; they also tried to uncover the bias in sources
How we set up a project can determine the focus of students; furthermore, we can create interventions along the process to help student move beyond fact-finding and looking for the "right" answer.
Why do we ask students to research?
The most important question to ask yourself before beginning a research project with students is "why." What are some of the reasons that we ask students to research?
Torture
Annoy them
Understand different points of view
Deeper inquiry - go beyond text/movie, etc. learning
Understanding the research process/practice researching
Looking for and understanding bias
Take ownership of their own learning
Required in the curriculum
Skill development
We don't want to do it ourselves (Dan Butler)
Expands the scope of what we can cover
Alternative to lecture
IMC visits (yay!)
Put through process to see what subject-specific research process means
Empathy
If you asked your students why they are required to do a research paper or project, what would they say?
Evil
Busy work
Waste of time
Teachers are lazy
Preparation for college/future
It's good for you
Required
How do our students define success in research?
Finding what they already believe
Good grade
As they go through, have a sense of accomplishment
Not getting caught plagiarizing
Just finishing it
Learning
Becoming an expert
We would like...
Enjoyment of research
Gaining new insights
Being a critical consumer of info
What do students learn during a research project?
Another important question to ask yourself as you begin to create a new project is "what kinds of learning experiences do I want my students to have?" In other words, what do students learn when they undertake various research tasks?
Identify relevant, credible sources
Using multiple sources to verify information
Intrinsic understanding - digging deeper
Filtering through information
How to deal with frustrations not finding information and finding different viewpoints
Reading through, comprehending, and understanding sources
Critical reading and annotation skills
Critical consumer of information
Asking questions of themselves and others
Moving past "good enough"
Research/Learning takes time
You should actually learn from research
At the beginning, should be gaining background, browsing sources, and gathering varying perspectives before moving forward
Independent thinkers
Follow where the research leads you
Research is not just a school/academic process
Not linear
Getting excited about research
Practice writing skills
Student expectations
Many studies have shown that students' expectations early in the research process have a lot to do with how they progress. Louise Limberg has shown that students did one of three things while researching:
How we set up a project can determine the focus of students; furthermore, we can create interventions along the process to help student move beyond fact-finding and looking for the "right" answer.